Our journey to wellness through food, activity, and overall health to elevate it to a better place!

Weight Management

Could all of this be real? Could this lifestyle change of healthier food, consistent exercise, and natural products FINALLY be sticking? Is it FINALLY not so hard?!?

It is, it truly is! Excuses have set me back time and time again. That old 1 step forward and 2 steps back is what continued to happen to me over and over! I couldn’t consistently eat well, exercise, and keep my mind positive to get myself to my goals. Life gets busy and would make it way too hard and I would sacrifice my goals for easy fast food, or sitting on the couch, or simply not caring anymore.

When I committed to change this time, I was determined…wait, cross that out, I’m still determined! I no longer want to be in the process of change, I want to be changed FOREVER! I want to finally, FINALLY reach my goals and there is NOTHING that is going to stand in my way…NOTHING!

I finally feel like, I’ve got this! I finally feel like I have control over my food. That was my biggest struggle, seriously. I could eat clean and healthy for a week and then stuff would come up and I wouldn’t get dinner made so I would make a poor food choice, and then I would make a poor choice for the next meal because, why not? The last meal was bad so this one won’t matter either. Then I would spiral downward and all my hard work would be sabotaged. Do you do this? Do you sabotage yourself when things get tough? Do you even realize you’re doing it? Many times I wouldn’t. I would wake up one day and look in the mirror and realize the poor decisions of the last month have negatively impacted my body and I’d have to start all over…again.

It has been 46 days since I made this commitment. I haven’t cheated once…I have stayed the course and only eaten real, good, healthy food and it really hasn’t been that hard. Do you know what was different this time? I was READY. I was finally ready to permanently live healthier. I was finally ready to let go of people who would drag me down and surround myself with only those who would support me. I was finally ready to believe that no excuse was good enough to get in the way of my goals.

Why do I do this? So many reasons…but first and foremost, for me. I want to be the best wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend, coach, wellness instructor, etc. that I can be, and I can’t do that if I am not living to the best of my ability; feeding my body healthy things, caring for my body the most natural way possible, and moving it by exercising and getting stronger. I want to be the best example to my children that I can possibly be! I want them to grow up healthy and strong with a love for physical activity that I never had. I want to support my husband as he walks this journey with me. We get to be each others biggest fans, shoulders to cry on, ears to vent to, and accountability partner to exercise with. It isn’t easy, but we are doing it!

I also couldn’t do this without one of the best coaches I’ve ever known, Mark and his inspiration of a wife Stephanie. They are an amazing example of living a healthy lifestyle day in and day out. Want to learn more about Mark’s program, contact him via his website at www.corestrongkc.com or check out his Instagram @trx_core . This is my progress from Day 1 to Day 35. I’ll post another one next week showing further progress…

Want to know why I embraced more natural lifestyle? I have a FREE newsletter just for you! Just go to www.getoiling.com/wellnessmomma to sign up for it! It explains why we made changes in our home to live more natural and using the best natural products we could find. Have questions or thoughts of inspiration to share with me? Just leave a comment on this post, I’d love to connect with you!

Today…well, it’s hard to put into words exactly how I feel. So here it is…day 10 video to explain my feelings today.

I’m doing my best to overcome, be strengthened by it, and continue on my journey to get to a better version of me!

I also put together another awesome Instant Pot meal! Here’s what I did, but I don’t measure anything, so I’ll do my best to describe it. 🙂

Chicken Veggie Soup

2lbs chicken breast (pre-cooked in instant pot)

4 c. chicken bone broth

3 carrots (peeled and chopped)

1 red bell pepper (chopped)

1 sweet potato (peeled and chopped)

1 onion (chopped)

2 c. frozen chopped kale

1 can of diced tomatoes with green chilies

oregano, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, cumin, salt and pepper

Put all ingredients in Instant Pot, lock lid and select “soup” setting for 12 minutes. When adding the seasoning, do what is best for you and your family. We like things a little spicy so we do a little more cumin and cayenne pepper.

It was super good, and helped turn my day around a little bit. If I am able to cook without 3 kiddos in my way, then it is pretty therapeutic and helps me to know I’m feeding myself well and healthy.

Every Monday I have decided to weigh in to help keep myself accountable and on track. I began this journey 1 week ago, and I was pleasantly surprised to see how I was doing! Check out how much I lost by watching the video!

Making small changes made a BIG difference! What small changes can you make to help you live a healthier life? #letsdothis #Sliquein60

Today I wanted to share about a couple of the small goals that I have set for myself. Small goals are important because if we don’t ever feel success on our journey to a big goal, we may never have the will power to accomplish that goal. So when working on a large goal, I break it down into tasks or smaller goals so that when I accomplish those, I feel the goodness of that small success so that I can continue to have the momentum to move forward and accomplish my BIG goals, hopes, and dreams…

I share about my small goals in my day 7 video…

Remember, we all have choices everyday that will help us accomplish our goals, or separate us from them. Some days the choices seem easy, and other days these choices feel like the ultimate sacrifice, but never lose sight of your goals!

The past couple days have been full of ups and downs, crazy busy moments, and emotional roller-coaster type feelings. Food is a drug for those of us that struggle with controlling it. When you grow up using food to correspond with your emotions, it is very hard to change your thinking at all times to know that food is FUEL, not something to bury your feelings it. Transitioning this way of thinking is hard, and I think it’s taken it’s toll on me the last couple days.

Here’s my day 6 video… 🙂

I did do some yoga at home today to stretch some of my soreness away and help my body feel better. My dog Zoey joined me on my mat.

One of the biggest battles I have is self-sabotage. I am really good at being successful in exercise or weight loss, and then sabotaging myself with food or binge-watching Netflix and not getting enough activity. Anyone else do that?

My mindset this time around is that each time I make a choice I think to myself, “is this going to come between me and my goal?” I am striving to be sure to make it to my goal and be successful. Here’s how today went…

What are you doing to reach your health goals? How do you help your mindset to be successful? I’d love to hear your ideas!

I decided a couple days ago that I needed to buckle down and finish my weight loss journey by getting to my goal weight! In order to help motivate me I signed up for Young Living’s Slique in 60 challenge, and I’m going to do it twice for a total of 120 days. I have been on this journey for awhile, and I would really like to get to the stage of maintaining my healthy weight instead of always battling to lose more.

I am excited for this because it helps give me a fresh start on my journey and helps me continue stronger with an invigorated spirit and perspective.

Tonight I made Sweet Potato Chili in my Instant Pot! It was SO yummy.

Here’s the recipe:

1lb. ground turkey

Here it is all packed up and ready for my husband’s lunch tomorrow!

1 large sweet potato (peeled and chopped)

2 carrots (peeled and chopped)

1 onion (diced)

1 red bell pepper (diced)

1-15oz. can petite diced tomatoes

1 small can tomatoes with green chilies

1-15oz. can black beans

1-15oz. can kidney beans

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp cumin

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp oregano

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 c water

On saute mode drizzle a little olive oil and add onion, carrots, sweet potato, and red pepper. Stir and let cook for 2 minutes. Add ground turkey and cook until nearly completely browned. While cooking add the seasonings. When it’s nearly browned add the tomatoes, beans, and water. Stir and switch to “chili” mode and 10 minutes, place lid on and allow it to cook. Do a quick release when finished and enjoy!

After a fairly easy Day 1, I decided to begin a video log of my 120 day adventure! Here’s day 1!

Any of my friends and family that have known me for years know that this past year has been a huge transformation for me in my diet and lifestyle. I have never been an athlete, have never truly taken care of my body before, and have never really committed to exercise in any way.

I made a decision to change. I decided I wanted a different course for my family tree and that I want to give my kids the knowledge to make healthy choices that I didn’t know about. I want to encourage them to live an active and healthy lifestyle, and let’s face it…I can’t do that from the couch!

Our children learn best by following our example, and I decided I wanted to be the best example that I could possibly give them.

Back in June 2015 I tried out Core Strong Fitness and took my very first TRX class. If you would have told me back then that I would fall in love with the exercise, the people, and the experience each week, I would have told you that you were crazy! No way would I ever commit to that! Little did I know that being a part of Core Strong would take me to the next level and give me the positive relationship with fitness and exercise that I have today. I go to class 3-4 days a week because I LOVE it! No one makes me go but myself, and this commitment has helped me be a healthier mom for my kids.

Recently our coach and owner of Core Strong asked me to be a part of his promotional video along with a handful of others from our classes. I never thought in a million years that I’d be part of a fitness promotional video. I was hesitant to do it, not really knowing what to expect, but the Lord keeps leading me to places outside my comfort zone and it always works out amazingly well.

Here’s all our hard work in an amazing video…

If you are local, come try a class! Your first one is FREE! 🙂

If you are on Facebook, be sure to keep up with our journey and “like” our Wellness Momma facebook page.

I am always looking for more ways to get my children to eat good and healthy food. This recipe that a friend gave me was so easy, and yummy! Our middle son, Owen, is currently in the Brain Balance program and along with all the therapies and work he is doing there 3 days a week, we also have exercises for home program and a nutrition plan. This plan is pretty restrictive. No gluten, dairy, soy, or refined sugars, and very limited corn. He also is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, and eggs so although we can have those things and stay on program with him, he can’t.

When we first began trying new foods Owen would absolutely refuse. He would have meltdowns, throw fits, I mean you would think we were asking him to move mountains, not take a small bite of food to try. Sometimes when he finally would try something, he would then throw up or spit it out because it was terrible. We have learned through his testing at Brain Balance that his “smeller” is off. He failed the portion of the test where he is supposed to guess smells, and smelling our food is a big part of how we taste our food so it makes sense that not very many things taste good to him. If it wasn’t the taste, it was the texture that threw him off so many times we felt like we couldn’t win.

He is slowly making progress. He is more open to trying new foods and taking at least 2 bites and swallowing. We haven’t found very many new foods that he likes yet, but the fact that he isn’t throwing up when he tries them is definitely progress!

Begin by peeling and coring the apples, then cut them into bite size pieces. In a medium saucepan add apples, water, and quinoa.

Bring these to a boil, then cover and reduce heat. Simmer for 20-25 minutes. Stir in cinnamon, then separate into 2 bowls. You can drizzle with honey if needed. I made a double batch so that I could have it all ready for the next day as well, so I put them in containers. It reheats quite well!

This was a definite hit with my littlest. He’s 3 and can nearly eat an entire serving by himself! My Brain Balance kid, Owen, doesn’t love it, but will eat about 5 bites and given our history, I’d say that’s a win! My oldest who is 9 will eat about 1/2 a serving before she says she is full.

I absolutely love it! It tastes good, but more than that, it is filling and keeps me full until it’s time to eat again, no mid-morning hunger to try and battle.

I’m going to be sharing some more recipes that we are trying soon, so be sure to follow our blog and check us out on Facebook at Wellness Momma.

**To learn more about cooking with Essential Oils, or to place an order, simply email me at wellnessmommaelyse@gmail.com or use this contact form.

Yesterday my friend Stacey sent me a text to see if I wanted her to grab my race packet for the Labor Day 5k. I had completely forgot about it, not to mention I can’t even remember the last time I ran. I did some with my daughter to help her prepare for her first 5k, but it wasn’t much because she isn’t a runner and struggled to do the walking and running. (but she really did well when it came time for the race) So without hesitation, I was like, YES! I’m going! Then I sat there and thought…what am I doing? I’m going to be SO SLOW, it’s gonna put me in a bad mood and ruin my weekend.

Well, last night I spent some time praying and eventually told myself, “Elyse, you set this goal to do this race and even if you forgot and don’t feel ready, just do it anyway! Who cares how long it takes you.” I do go to TRX strength training 3-4 times a week, so it’s not like I’m not exercising, I just haven’t been running.

Getting ready this morning I just kept thinking, you are just gonna run the best you can. It’s only a 5k…you’ve got this! I drank my NingXia Red, put on some Young Living peppermint essential oil and headed out the door.

When I got in line for the race I was the calmest I have ever been before the start of a race. I felt peace in knowing that finishing this race was my goal, not getting a certain time.

During the race I pushed myself, I found some people shortly before mile 1 that I was keeping pretty good pace with so I challenged myself to stay with them. Another goal set right in the middle of the race…and I did it! I pushed hard to stay close to them, and you know what? I was within seconds of my fastest time ever for a 5k. My timing chip didn’t catch my start time, so it was just the clock time when I looked up my race time, but that’s ok. I know I started about 30 seconds in, so I am so happy with myself!

I set goals for myself, and I crushed them! I have worked so hard this past year to achieve goals in my life, and today was no different. I am about to start some new goals in my life, and following through with this race is giving me the push I need to keep going!